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AppNexus CEO Says IPO Could Be Dependent On Timing Or Acquisition Prospects

AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley sat down with Business Insider at his New York headquarters recently and we asked him the same question everyone else is asking him: Will AppNexus file for an IPO?

As usual, O'Kelley was coy, neither confirming nor denying his plans. His main goal, he says, is to build a great company and he feels no pressure to sell. But AppNexus is the largest adtech company in New York — it has 500 employees — and the investors who have backed it, including Microsoft, are expected to want a return on their $141 million in funding at some point.

When pressed, O'Kelley told us that both an IPO or a buyout deal were an option:

Our aspiration is to build a company that could be public, and if the timing's right both for us and the markets and everything else then it would be a great aspiration to someday be public. But nothing in the cards today.

I don't think anyone is too big to be acquired. ... We're not too big to be acquired. I don't think we have a lot of impetus to sell.